Views from the Basement

Hello world!

2009-12-14T22:15:00.003-06:00

So it's been AGES since I've posted anything on this blog. I'm actually doing this to help a student out. I want to show her how to embed code from other websites into her blog. So, here we go! :-)

Since I'm a sucker for YouTube, I'm going to embed it's share code here:

And how about a wordle image?

Leaving for awhile....

2008-02-26T22:10:00.003-06:00

Life has gotten in the way...
Sickness, school, teaching, grading, applying for doctoral school, kids sports, etc have just railroaded my efforts to build this blog. Well, all these things and the feeling that I really don't have a lot to contribute. I know that's a sour puss kind of attitude, but that's how I feel. I try to build communication and networking...all seemingly to no avail. I don't blame this on anyone but myself. I start to get involved and I'm gung ho to start....but I don't finish the task or take it to the next level. I simply need to step back and figure out how I want to make my voice heard in the world of educational technology. Where do I want to fit, and what do I really have to say?

To all of you who lent comments and encouraged me during the first few days of the challenge, I thank you. I hope that I can participate again, but now is just not the time for me. I am going back into the shadows for awhile. When I return, I'll let my voice be heard in a way that gets attention. :-)

Busy week = absent blogger

2008-01-30T23:09:00.000-06:00

I so want to write about my reactions to what I heard and learned at FETC last week. Unfortunately I seem to be unable to get to my blog at all. While in Florida, I had limited access in the evenings after the conference and since I have been home, life has been nothing short of a whirlwind. (Curently have 10 year old son fighting stomach flu. NOT fun!) Hopefully I can share my thoughts with you tomorrow...................HOPEFULLY!

31 Days...Progressing SLOWLY

2008-01-20T20:46:00.000-06:00

I'm moving REALLY slowly at this one. At this rate, I'll be 62 days to a better blogger...LOL! I must say that the tasks are stretching me a lot and introducing me to terms that I know nothing about. On Day 3, I was supposed to subscribe to a forum...well, I'm a member at Classroom 2.0 and I've got a pretty good network established on Twitter...does that count? If not, how do I find those forums? What's the point?

I did have my husband look at my blog. He thought it was pretty cool, but he really knows nothing about them and he thinks whatever I do related to technology is cool. Isn't he the sweetest? I'm going to have to find someone a little more knowledgeable for this task...the question is who?

This has been the weekend for stretching my brain, though. If you'll check out my post from yesterday, you'll see the beginnings of that stretch. Then we talked this morning in Sunday School about God being ultimately responsible for all suffering...whoa, brain overload there. Finally, my friend Kate brought up some heavy thoughts on blogging and education. SHOULD teachers blog? Now I'm really confused and having to think hard about how to approach this little piece of the internet universe. This is my way of creating a network of like-minded individuals. People passionate about technology and educating kids. However, what would happen if this became a venue for airing my complaints about the world in general, including my job? Responsibility in what we share is the key here I think. But I believe this question is going to take even more thinking!

The Futility of it All...

2008-01-19T23:38:00.000-06:00

This post is going to be so totally off topic. My husband and I just finished watching "The Kingdom." After watching it, I don't know......stuff just seems so insignificant. I know there's evil in the world. I know people in the mideast hate us "Christian" Americans. I know they think Allah wants them to obliterate all "unbelievers." But it's all just so futile! One line in the movie really got me. The scene was an FBI agent asking questions of an American living in Saudi Arabia whose wife had been murdered in a surprise attack the day before. His kids watched it happen. Needless to say he was angry...needless to say the presence of Saudi police made him angrier...and then he asked them this question, "Does Allah love your children more than he loves mine? Does Allah love your wife more than mine?" WOW! That one really hit me.

I'm not writing this post to start a political debate about whether the US should be in the mideast or not. I'm not writing this post to bash the religion of Islam. No, I really don't care to open those cans of worms. This post is just to voice my frustration at the whole business in general. In my own humble opinion it's pointless, it's futile, and it's not worth losing our children!

Ok, that's enough heavy for one day (and maybe one lifetime). Thanks for stopping by. I hope my outlook is generally more cheery tomorrow. :-)

31 Days to a Better Blogger

2008-01-17T13:15:00.000-06:00

Well, now I've done it. I joined a group doing the 31 days project. But really, I'm excited about this project. I'm excited to learn how to make my little page in the "blogosphere" shine a little brighter. I'm also eager to learn the ins and outs of this "art" so that I can share it with my grad students, and they in turn can pass it on to their own students. The possibilities are endless!

Not only am I participating in this blogging exploration, I also have been accepted to the new class at Webcast Academy. This was totally accidental as I wanted to be an observer for this go around, but I was emailed that I had been accepted as an intern. I am going to be so full of 2.0 knowledge -- I just might explode! LOL.

There are days that I am just amazed at the blessings I've received this past year. It is SO refreshing to get up in the morning and actually want to go to work! I am ready for this journey into the ed tech world....I've always loved traveling to new places.

What a day!

2008-01-14T22:59:00.000-06:00

Today's been interesting. We've been struggling for several years now with my son and school. Mainly it's been his ability to focus on the task at hand and follow directions. Both my husband and I are educators, and my mother-in-law was in special education so we are pretty keen to the signs of trouble. However, we were pretty certain his problems had nothing to do with ADD or ADHD because it's not a CONSTANT thing. Well, today we visited a vision specialist. I think we may have discovered the root of the evil, so to speak. He was diagnosed with a lazy eye years ago, but I had no idea how adversely eye problems could affect performance. I always thought putting glasses on him would solve the problem. Turns out it's more than that. So, we go back Thursday for another round of tests and then we'll meet with the doctor to discuss a therapy plan. He's such a bright, talented kid. I am hoping that all this helps him in some way because if it doesn't, I can see a LONG road of frustration looming before us in middle and high school! Isn't it amazing how the human brain works and learns?

Teachers who care about PD...Who Knew?

2008-01-13T21:21:00.000-06:00

I have spent the past 3 days researching the web for sites dealing with Professional Development for educators. I have found some rather extraordinary blogs out there dealing with just this subject. I am amazed at how many teachers are out there who are asking such poignant questions regarding professional development issues. Perhaps becoming a bigger part of this digital conversation will restore my faith in the profession. There really are teachers out there who want to learn new ways to enrich their curriculum, and help create a generation of kids who can think, write and solve problems on their own. For now I am energized and ready to hit this new semester running! I am eager to see how the students in my PD course approach this very subject. Tune in for updates...

Holiday Word Game!

2007-12-05T10:27:00.000-06:00

Ok, so I should be working, but a friend sent me a challenge and I am a sucker for word games. Here it is, how many words can you make from TECHTOYLAND? I stuck to three letters or more. Here's my list so far:
teach
toy
land
lane
lynch
lance
dance
dane
don't
dot
dole
yodel
chat
hand
hat
hot
tot
coy
candy
can
con
cat
cad
cay
chant
the
then
ate
ado
attend
lady
lace
laced
lot
let
leach
lye
clay
cloy
locate
day
date
hate
hated
cheat
nay
any
lay
cane
yon
don
ton
hone
non
none
not
they
chad
hay
hey
hen
note
noted
notate
nod
node
nad
notch
notched
tote
toted
total
totaled
toe
that
than
honey
only
ode
ocean
octet
oath
hate
hated
had
hale
today
toad
tone
cone
coat
handy
dandy
end
etch
eat
heal
teal
deal
dealt
tat
late
latch
latched
deny
chanted
code
dote
delay
total
totaled
doth

Can you find any more?

SlideShare -- Sharing PowerPoint on the Web!

2007-11-28T14:07:00.001-06:00

I found a new toy today! I also found some GREAT examples of presentations that I hope to use to get my students out of the rut of "boring" presentation mode. I'm anxious to start using some of these ideas myself!

Death by PowerPoint

From: thecroaker, 3 months ago

| View | Upload your own

Fighting death by PowerPoint... How to make a presentation and not to bore your audience to death.

SlideShare Link

Another cool video -- Especially for Kindergarten Teachers!

2007-11-07T13:21:00.001-06:00

So what do you think? Just one of those things that makes you go, "Hmmmmm..."

Jing-a-ling!

2007-10-05T09:22:00.000-05:00

I am really excited to pass along two different sites this week, TeacherTube and Jing. Since one of my classes is working with digital video, I've been pretty immersed in that technology these past two weeks. The sites I'm sharing today are ones that I think no teacher should be without!

If I could share just one link with you today, it would be TeacherTube. Hey that sounds a lot like YouTube, you might say. Well it is, only it's for teacher's! TeacherTube provides videos on various topics, from electromagnetism to music. Just think, a place to find some professional development video without having to worry about polar bears or kittens playing with string. (Check out the Diet Coke and Mentos video if you get a chance. What kid wouldn't get excited about that kind of experiment after watching it? Too COOL!)

The other link is for a new project by the people at TechSmith called Jing. Here's waht their site has to say about the project, "The concept of Jing is the always-ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video…from your computer to anywhere." And that is exactly what it does! This little program holds such vast potential for instruction, especially techology instruction. After all, who hasn't had to type directions for how to use a specific program's functionality? They get to be so long and we invariably miss something important. And although screen shots are nice, they take a lot of memory in our documents and emailing memory intensive items can be tricky for a lot of servers.
Enter Jing! Jing looks like a little sunshine sitting at the top of your desktop, at all times ready to capture what's on your screen at a moments notice. Who wouldn't love a way to video the steps in formatting or creating a chart in Excel? It sure beats typing the 25 instruction steps that it might take when sharing those same directions verbally. And what a boon for the visual learners among us! Finally, we can SEE how to set the homepage of our browser to a page other than the default.
Jing makes this possible by capturing the screen image or video and then saving them to screencast.com A screencast is a recording of the computer screen, sometimes narrated, that is usually used to instruct or demonstrate. A link is then posted to the clipboard on your computer and you can share that link with anyone via email, IM, in your blog, etc. Jing can even be embedded into blogs and other webpages for easier navigation. How cool is that?!
Check it out and see what you think. The people at the Jing project want your feedback so they can make Jing even more "Jing-a-licious."
Oh, and did I mention the very best thing? It's absolutely FREE and works on both PC and Mac platforms. Now go out there and get Jing-ing!

Look what I found!

2007-09-21T09:29:00.000-05:00

Ok, so some of this may not be really new, but it is new to me! I've been listening to the techchicktips and EdTech Weekly podcasts these past couple of weeks and I'm finding more cool stuff than I could have ever dreamed about. One of my favorite finds this week has been Learning 2.0 If you haven't heard of it yet (I know it's been around for awhile.), Learning 2.0 is a blog started by the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County in North Carolina. As I read about it, Learning 2.0 is "a discovery learning program designed to encourage staff to explore new technologies and reward them for doing 23 Things." What a great way to foster independent exploration of new technologies. Through a program like this, we could easily teach students about new web bases technologies, and then use them for enriching classroom experiences. In ways I was reminded of a Webquest, where you give the kids a "mission" and then provide links for them to follow. Anyway, I was REALLY impressed with the idea, and if you take a class of mine, don't be surprised to see something like this pop up!

I don't want to get too windy, so I'm going to wrap this up here in a moment. However, I wanted to add a just for fun site that some of you might like. Being a librarian for preservice teachers leads me to all sorts of fun technologies and websites. This week I want to highlight childrenslibrary.org This is the site for the International Children's Digital Library. At this site you can select books by age group, kinds of characters, even the color of the cover! After you've selected your book, you can read the entire thing online. I like it because it includes a great collection of international titles. These are books my kids might never get to see or be exposed to. Imagine doing a lesson on Brazil or China and being able to present a book to the class from that actual country. Too cool!

I am just amazed at all the possibilities we have to incorporate rich content into our kids' education. I don't remember where I read it, but one point I liked is that not only can we now read about FDR's fireside chats, they've been digitized and we can now actually listen to them and understand why he had such a HUGE impact on the American people. My point is, we can make a lot of this really come alive to our students now if we'll just take some time to really embrace the technology that's out there. Don't get me wrong, I know time is a precious thing that we don't have a lot of to spare. But, I really want us educators to start thinking about how we are going to reach students who are drenched in technology everyday. Are we going to continue to assign textbook reading and worksheets, or are we going to strive to meet them where they're at and bring these subjects that we love to life for them? Just a few thoughts to ponder!

Until next week, here's a laugh to end the day, (I love the muppets and classic Sesame Street!)

Welcome one and all!

2007-09-07T20:37:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the first of many posts to my brand new blog. I've decided if I'm going to teach others how to use them, then I should probably delve into the world of blogs too! I hope you like the title. If you don't know, my office at PSU happens to be in the basement of the School of Ed building. So what better title for a blog from work, than Views from the Basement?

I'm hoping to use this blog to share newly discovered books, websites, videos and such from the world of the school library and educational technology. Got a comment or question? Feel free to ask! I might not have the answer, but we can always look for it!